At what point will I need to switch over to a CRM system?

I am still using excel right now, and I'm curious at what point in my business should I switch over to a CRM system. My business is still small, so I'm unsure if switching over now is worth the costs or the time of learning a new system until I've grown my customer base a little more.

The sooner the better. There are relatively inexpensive ones that can still be powerful (I know of one that is $20 per month). I started with relatively low-priced one, and then when I needed more functionality than the one I had, I migrated to another one. There are usually easy processes for integrating your existing database onto a new system electronically.

With a CRM or not, you must always have a consistent process for staying in touch with your prospects (sometimes called a 'drip campaign'.). The reason this is so important is that statistically, only 1 - 3% of your prospects on average are looking right now to buy what you are looking for. Therefore, the rest buy only after between 8 - 12 "touches". You have to make it easy to do this with a CRM and ability to mass mail/email prospects.

Hi Carrie, I believe it's worth your while to start using a CRM system right away. This will have many benefits such as putting your clients through the sales funnel, generating leads and moving them to accounts once they become clients.

Besides this it will also automatically make your business more valuable to potential investors or if at some stage you consider selling it.

A CRM system doesn't have to be expensive and I believe if you look at www.zoho.com you will see that it is even free up to 3 users (of course it depends on your own needs but a basic system that zoho can provide is usually more than enough in the starting phase).

I like zoho because it's easy to use, it's cloud based and can be accessed from any browser, world wide and it's simple enough to navigate. It may take some time to get used to it, but I believe this is with any CRM system out there the case.

You can see the stage of your prospects and pipeline immediately and you can import your excel spreadsheet directly into zoho. You may need to tweak your spreadsheet here and there but I'm sure you will figure it out.

I hope this is helpful. If you need some guidance, I'm happy to talk you through zoho if you like.

Carsten is right about starting immediately, but I hate Zoho. Do some research on your own for cost-effective CRMs. My experience has taught me that different people have different routines and use-cases for CRMs, and as such, gravitate to certain types of CRMs over others. I don't hate Zoho b/c it's a bad platform, I hate it b/c it doesn't work the way I want it to.

Hi Patrick, you are absolutely right. We all have different systems we prefer like some people swear on Oracle or SAP while others like sugar crm. I think it's worth to look at different systems and then make a valed decision. For some people it does come down to price and I personally find zoho is userfriendly and can me migrated to different systems uf need be as well as not overly expensive. But as you said it's a personal preference and my experience so far has been great. I think the paid option is more customizable. :-)

I agree with Patrick and Carsten to get started with a CRM program ASAP---Score uses Customer Contact for what its worth....I used to use DB because I wanted to have my customers sized by number of employees, geography, and most importantly to me their credit.... If all of them have the credit then see which one seems right in your gut...

Switch now. You will only waste time later, more data, longer migration, probably associated costs.
Now - I will yet again upset a lot of people as I will recommend a program for new businesses. Please don't be offended (all you sales guys and affiliates)
Have a look at ZOHO.com - 2 weeks free and the customer support is FANTASTIC. It works, modular - etc. I used SugarCRM (which is a sledgehammer to crack a nut) and tried others. Those guys are good.
Well - here we go guys - I opened a can of worms!

Hi Ralph, I believe even from a sales perspective, zoho is one of the stronger candidates of CRM systems out there. So, completely agree with you. If you're in sales, zoho is a MUST...now that's opening a can of worms :-)
They still offer not only the trial for free but up to 10 users are free as well. No need to pay for a CRM system unless you require customized reporting tools etc. The free version is in most cases more than enough to get started and once professionally in use and the company is growing, zoho can grow with you for a small per user fee which is much more affordable than most other solutions. :-)

My advice is start now, setting up or migrating data into a new CRM is a painful process and will provide you with more questions than answers. It is much easier to do with small and focused data set that you want to nurture, manage and extract value from as opposed to continuing to grow in excel and then add to a CRM, as it may require you to buy a more expensive system due to the size of the data set.

A good CRM will help you grow your customer base and the right choice will help you with lead nurturing. Buy a system that will grow with your business Hubspot or Communigator both are cloud based and will allow you to tailor the solution for the short, medium and long term.

Biggest thing I have learnt is test your processes from a software and people perspective, don't implement a new system and new processes that people are not used to as it will cause confusion and adoption of the system will be slow. Create your perfect scenario and work backwards from there.

Start now and get used to using. If you want to scale your business in the long run, you need to start building your sales processes so when it comes time to delegate or if you have an influx of leadsm your will have your process and CRM systems ready.

There are many free to low cost options out there. HubSpot is offering their CRM for free right now. http://www.hubspot.com/products/crm

Carrie ...There are plenty of small business CRM platforms that have a free version that allow you to trial their platforms before starting to invest $15+/mo on them. Furthermore, most of the CRMs today are very user-friendly and have plenty of training videos if necessary.

The transitioning from Excel to a CRM is pretty painless since most of them have the ability to create custom fields and offer templates to match the data in your spreadsheet and import it into the CRM.

For new customers some of the platforms are able to search the web so that there is no need for data entry.

So no matter how many contacts, records, notes you have currently the platforms are able to handle what you have and more.

Lastly, unless you are using Office 360 and are using their mobile apps, you must have a laptop computer to access the records in your spreadsheet; whereas, with almost all of the SaaS-based CRM platforms you can access and manage your database from any device or computer at anytime from anywhere. Also, most are built on open API so you can connect/link your CRM to many other programs like accounting, email, etc.

I going to use a slightly different approach than my esteemed fellow posters. I would suggest that you take it in stages. I know a number of people who use Excel and they have hundreds of clients. Not as efficient, but they feel very comfortable with their current system. You could check with different CRM companies and get a feeling for which one allows for the easiest uploading of Excel spreadsheets. You could then take them up on their two week or month trial memberships to see which fields they use, and then tailor your Excel to them. Continue using Excel with the new fields until you feel as though you cannot keep up with the number of your customers. You may never switch, but if you do, it will be more painless than entering everything from scratch.

A great question. A lot depends on your NEED to KNOW rather than nice to have.
Most CRM systems work to some degree but rely on accurate and timely input. All CRM systems demand that everyone who has access to it also maintains the integrity of the information. To understand what you NEED from a CRM - you should make sure that any "PAPER BASED SYSTEM" you have (and that includes Excel) gives you what you need for your business. To test this you should involve all those in your business who need access to information now and later. Any system you purchase needs to be able to "keep up" with your business changes without the need for specialist input from a software house.
The real answer is research research research and talk to users in a similar business BEFORE you buy, The more you learn - especially if you are not technical - the better.

Switch Now. The time will be well spent. All CRM systems allow you to do much more and easier than using excel. CRM systems allow you categorize and have much information including notes and attachments. They prevent actions from falling through the cracks.

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